Running with the Belgian PM - quite a secure experience
“This is the highest ranking European visitor since Kenyan elections 2013,” the organizer of the event, Ally Khan Sachu declared, as he welcomed Didier Reynders, the Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium, who also doubles as the Minister for Foreign Affairs. To be politically correct, his other docket is ‘Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and European Affairs’. Ally has a way to ensuring that a statement sinks. I tend to think that he was so excited being next to such a dignitary that he even forgot to introduce the sessions with the usual, “Welcome to today’s session of Mindspeak”. But who cares, we were holding our breath waiting for the main address. I was looking forward to a presentation like none before. I was already fixing my eyes on the big projector screens.
But strange things happen, and the first was this other guy standing with a Mac laptop on the aisle, just about 7 metres from the podium. He was standing to the left of my sitting position, two rows from the podium, almost at the centre of the big room. The guy with the Mac just stood there, laptop open, laptop screen facing the speaker and... just standing. I could not make out what this was all about. Could it be that this is one of those high level protocol things? How can they just punish this poor guy by having him hold the 5kg of laptop in mid-air for that long? A few faces in the room turned, followed by whispers.
Amid all the uncertainties, some answers started trickling in, when he finally, after about 10 minutes, moved with his laptop to the back of the room, whether the audio visual mixing table was located. I glanced back, and could see a video display on the laptop screen. He must have been capturing a video of the podium using the inbuilt laptop camera… but why would he do that? Why would he have to hold the laptop? Could he not get a laptop stand? Could they not use better video capturing equipment or technology? But there were already expensive looking camcorders, located at the front and back of the room - was this not enough, I have never been so confused.
Speech
A second oddity was the fact that the DPM did not have any presentation or notes. He just stood up, walked to the podium and started talking. I believe that being a diplomat must have enabled him to just have a speech within his system. In fact, during Q&A, one member of the audience deliberately congratulated him on being “the only speaker without a speech”. Lack of a written speech or presentation meant that he also could not speak for long, unless this was part of the script. He was on the podium for a record 25 minutes. All speakers during previous sessions ensured they utilized the one hour time slot allocated between 10.00am and 11.00am. A Q&A session would ordinarily take the next hour. Finishing early however gave the audience over one and a half hours of questions in this particular occasion.
And the audience did not disappoint, as they asked about anything they thought was worthy of a diplomatic redress. The DPM did not disappoint either. Most questions were on the role of Belgium in the DRC, one of the counties that they colonized in Africa, though an almost equal number was about the relationship between the EU and China.
“What is your view on China?”, someone asks bluntly.
University
The topic on the lack of skilled manpower generated some debate, with the CEO of Safaricom, Bob Collymore diving in and stating that, “Universities are getting out of date”. While the audience was about to give a sigh of discontent, he added that, “Last year’s technology is not relevant this year”. To ensure he remains the talk in town, he finalized, “… That is why not everybody should go to the university”
On democracy, the diplomat said that democracy should not only be stated, but must also be seen. He drove this home by comparing the elections in the US where two candidates were vying for the top seat and those in China where there was one contestant. However, by mentioning ‘China’ more than twenty times during his speech and answers, it was evident that this was a country worth paying close attention to.
Just around mid-day, the session came to an end and the podium once again was taken over by the men-in-black. As we milled out of the five star hotel, we had a few moments to reflect on the events of the day, and how high level diplomats operate.
Reflection… when I arrived, I noticed some smartly dressed gentlemen strategically positioned near each of the doors. Of course, the promised breakfast was not available by 9.00am when I arrived. Piled up cutlery alluded to a sumptuous breakfast earlier, but who could have benefited, if by nine there was nothing? For a meeting whose reporting time was nine? Could it be that our fellow stocks investors now come to these meetings at 8.00am?
Chicken
Reflections... In the meeting room, it was business unusual. Ten minutes to ten, while the wiring of the audio-visual system was being finalized, three smartly dressed Kenyans moved to the podium and almost literally ripped the carpet apart, looking underneath for... for what? As two of them crouched near the wires, to scrutinize them, a protrusion could clearly be seen forcing itself towards their backs from under their coats, just above the waist line. That was the easiest “chicken leg” that one could ever notice. It was that evident. The observable trio also tested and looked through all doors and emergency exits. With such a treat, it was apparent that this was high level function, even as the guests arrived about five minutes to ten. The smartly dressed guys had surely every reason to be armed.
Back to the street, I mingled with the masses and soon was running into a matatu to carry me back to Central. “Kwaheri, rudi tena,” the signboard read, as I lighted from the matatu and walked to my residence. It was just another Saturday in mid-August and life was full of its usual Kenyan hustle.
WWB, Nairobi, Kenya, August 17, 2013
“This is the highest ranking European visitor since Kenyan elections 2013,” the organizer of the event, Ally Khan Sachu declared, as he welcomed Didier Reynders, the Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium, who also doubles as the Minister for Foreign Affairs. To be politically correct, his other docket is ‘Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and European Affairs’. Ally has a way to ensuring that a statement sinks. I tend to think that he was so excited being next to such a dignitary that he even forgot to introduce the sessions with the usual, “Welcome to today’s session of Mindspeak”. But who cares, we were holding our breath waiting for the main address. I was looking forward to a presentation like none before. I was already fixing my eyes on the big projector screens.
But strange things happen, and the first was this other guy standing with a Mac laptop on the aisle, just about 7 metres from the podium. He was standing to the left of my sitting position, two rows from the podium, almost at the centre of the big room. The guy with the Mac just stood there, laptop open, laptop screen facing the speaker and... just standing. I could not make out what this was all about. Could it be that this is one of those high level protocol things? How can they just punish this poor guy by having him hold the 5kg of laptop in mid-air for that long? A few faces in the room turned, followed by whispers.
Amid all the uncertainties, some answers started trickling in, when he finally, after about 10 minutes, moved with his laptop to the back of the room, whether the audio visual mixing table was located. I glanced back, and could see a video display on the laptop screen. He must have been capturing a video of the podium using the inbuilt laptop camera… but why would he do that? Why would he have to hold the laptop? Could he not get a laptop stand? Could they not use better video capturing equipment or technology? But there were already expensive looking camcorders, located at the front and back of the room - was this not enough, I have never been so confused.
Speech
A second oddity was the fact that the DPM did not have any presentation or notes. He just stood up, walked to the podium and started talking. I believe that being a diplomat must have enabled him to just have a speech within his system. In fact, during Q&A, one member of the audience deliberately congratulated him on being “the only speaker without a speech”. Lack of a written speech or presentation meant that he also could not speak for long, unless this was part of the script. He was on the podium for a record 25 minutes. All speakers during previous sessions ensured they utilized the one hour time slot allocated between 10.00am and 11.00am. A Q&A session would ordinarily take the next hour. Finishing early however gave the audience over one and a half hours of questions in this particular occasion.
And the audience did not disappoint, as they asked about anything they thought was worthy of a diplomatic redress. The DPM did not disappoint either. Most questions were on the role of Belgium in the DRC, one of the counties that they colonized in Africa, though an almost equal number was about the relationship between the EU and China.
“What is your view on China?”, someone asks bluntly.
University
The topic on the lack of skilled manpower generated some debate, with the CEO of Safaricom, Bob Collymore diving in and stating that, “Universities are getting out of date”. While the audience was about to give a sigh of discontent, he added that, “Last year’s technology is not relevant this year”. To ensure he remains the talk in town, he finalized, “… That is why not everybody should go to the university”
On democracy, the diplomat said that democracy should not only be stated, but must also be seen. He drove this home by comparing the elections in the US where two candidates were vying for the top seat and those in China where there was one contestant. However, by mentioning ‘China’ more than twenty times during his speech and answers, it was evident that this was a country worth paying close attention to.
Just around mid-day, the session came to an end and the podium once again was taken over by the men-in-black. As we milled out of the five star hotel, we had a few moments to reflect on the events of the day, and how high level diplomats operate.
Reflection… when I arrived, I noticed some smartly dressed gentlemen strategically positioned near each of the doors. Of course, the promised breakfast was not available by 9.00am when I arrived. Piled up cutlery alluded to a sumptuous breakfast earlier, but who could have benefited, if by nine there was nothing? For a meeting whose reporting time was nine? Could it be that our fellow stocks investors now come to these meetings at 8.00am?
Chicken
Reflections... In the meeting room, it was business unusual. Ten minutes to ten, while the wiring of the audio-visual system was being finalized, three smartly dressed Kenyans moved to the podium and almost literally ripped the carpet apart, looking underneath for... for what? As two of them crouched near the wires, to scrutinize them, a protrusion could clearly be seen forcing itself towards their backs from under their coats, just above the waist line. That was the easiest “chicken leg” that one could ever notice. It was that evident. The observable trio also tested and looked through all doors and emergency exits. With such a treat, it was apparent that this was high level function, even as the guests arrived about five minutes to ten. The smartly dressed guys had surely every reason to be armed.
Back to the street, I mingled with the masses and soon was running into a matatu to carry me back to Central. “Kwaheri, rudi tena,” the signboard read, as I lighted from the matatu and walked to my residence. It was just another Saturday in mid-August and life was full of its usual Kenyan hustle.
WWB, Nairobi, Kenya, August 17, 2013
